Ok most likely i am just retarded and can't do simple math, but i fail to see how any of these reward cards are ever worth it. The only decent thing is cash back.

So for 1 point = $0.01You earn 1 point per 1$ spend, or 3 points per 1$ spent on travel & restaurants(worthless to us money savers)If redeem your points on chase's site/portal you get 50% back. So if you have say 100,000 points, it is treated as 150,000 points, or 1,500$ credit for travel.So to gain 100,000 points, or 1,000$/1,500$ worth you need to spend 100,000$?!?! that is basically no better than a 1.5% cashback card?

Am i missing something in these "travel hacks" and "fly for free" posts i read? To me it seems wayyyy better to get the 1% w/ 5% rolling cash back, or a flat 1.5% cash back.Yes, the signup bonus is huge i suppose, spend 4k in 3 months and you get 100,000 free points. But once you factor in the 450$/yr fee, or 150$ if you take advantage of the travel credit, i fail to see how you would ever make up for it. you would need to spend at LEAST 10,000$/yr using your card to pay for itself.They appear to be 1-1.5% cash back towards airline/partner program with HUGE yearly fees.

Anyone care to explain to me why these are good? Even for someone who travels ALOT?

edit:I also suppose you get the special airport clubs and free transactions overseas.

You have to be in it for the sign-up bonus. You won't fly for free just holding one card and putting a couple hundred bucks a month on it.

My husband and I are both doing the CSR card right now. After accounting for fees, we'll have something around $3,000 in free travel from the card.

I've also done the Capital One card that gives a $400 sign-up bonus and the Barclay card that has a $500 sign-up bonus. When I'm done with the minimum spend and done using the bonus, I call and cancel the card.

There are lots of travel cards with hefty sign-up bonuses out there. Finish the spend requirement and move on to the next card.

The 1.5x redemption really helps if you also have a Chase Freedom card with the 5% categories (effective 7.5% for travel) and a Chase Freedom Unlimited at 1.5% cash back or 2% on travel, just move points to the Reserve. Neither of these have an annual fee.

So it basically is the same as abusing cash back cards, get the perks, then close the card.

When banks routinely charge over 20% interest for balances on their credit cards to people who don't understand the implications of that, I would hesitate to use the word "abuse" to describe anything legal that consumers do to take advantage of rewards programs.

But to answer the main part of your question, if you're planning to travel anyway, then it's a great deal. If you're not, then it might not be such a great deal. For example, my wife and I had been planning to visit my brother in Africa this summer. The cost of two round-trip tickets would have been approximately $3,000. We both got a CSR card and got our tickets for free with the bonus. Add in $300 each in travel credits for 2016 AND 2017, and we get two free trips to see my wife's parents in another state as well. So, for $900 (CSR yearly fee for both of us), we saved around $3,000.

I just signed up for this card - it is a good deal if you travel a lot (which I do). I will get $1500 free travel money by spending the $4000 in first 3 months. I plan on buying a lot of gift cards to grocery stores/Costco which will help sustain my spending for most of the year on things I will have to buy anyway instead of just charging frivolous things to meet the $4000. I will also meet that $300 for the travel credit no problem so I am only spending $150 to get this deal in theory (and it will continue to cost $150 per year because I will always earn that $300 travel credit no problem). The rewards program also allows you to have deals on flights, hotels, rental cars when booking and you can also get gift cards to many retailers/restaurants or Amazon w/ points earned from spending on the card - I think you can also just get straight cash back if you wanted that instead. Since I travel a lot I will also earn 3 points for every dollar which is better than what I am earning on another travel CC I have right now where I'm earning 2 points for every travel dollar. I have 5 CC's, this will make a 6th - will not cancel any of them because it can negatively affect your credit score to open then immediately close CC's. Having multiple lines of credit open I believe helps your credit score - you just need to not have any debt on them (which I never have). I have a 828 credit score.

IMO, it's only worth if it you're going to spend that $4k anyways and planning to travel within the year to maximize the travel credit then close the card before the annual hits after the initial waiver.

I use to chase points like other posters on this thread but I just got tired of the whole circus and I felt I was definitely spending more frivolously being a "churner."Now I just have the one credit card that I pay off monthly - I had 9 cards at one time!! I don't travel that much anymore and that's one of the main incentives of the churner life.

Honestly, it's a lot of work for a few hundred dollars of savings but the advertisers spent billions of dollars on shiny carrots so that bunnies will chase them... hard to resist that those shiny carrots...

Super deal if you can hit the minimum spend requirement w/o spending frivolously and cancel after the first year. I plan on doing both and applied yesterday. It went into application review and I'm anxious to get approved and get the card. New to churning so I'm well within 5/24 rules, 800+ score, $100K HHI. Really should get approved. Possibly held up because I got the Chase Ink Business Preferred just last month.

You need to think a little bit bigger. If you're just using the Chase travel portal for the $1,500, you're not getting the max value. The thing that the Reserve fans understand is that you can transfer the points to certain airlines. I'm probably going to use them for first-class to New Zealand, which to me, is worth far more than $1,500 cash back.

You need to think a little bit bigger. If you're just using the Chase travel portal for the $1,500, you're not getting the max value. The thing that the Reserve fans understand is that you can transfer the points to certain airlines. I'm probably going to use them for first-class to New Zealand, which to me, is worth far more than $1,500 cash back.

What airline can you only spend 100k points on and get 1st class to New Zealand? I know this isn't possible with Skyteam out of MSP....

I just signed up for this and I should be getting my card today. I'm excited for the travel perks. I got the bonus for the Sapphire preferred last year but haven't used it yet and I've got a month of vacation days stored up. I feel like the $500 fee for the card will motivate me to make sure I actually go on vacation this year.

You need to think a little bit bigger. If you're just using the Chase travel portal for the $1,500, you're not getting the max value. The thing that the Reserve fans understand is that you can transfer the points to certain airlines. I'm probably going to use them for first-class to New Zealand, which to me, is worth far more than $1,500 cash back.

I'd love to hear more about using the points with airlines to maximize the value. My family of 4 will be looking for flights from coast to coast (2017 holidays) and from philly to orlando (spring 2018). I was just planning on buying through the portal, but if there is a better way to do it, I'm like Mickey Mouse, all ears...

I'd love to hear more about using the points with airlines to maximize the value. My family of 4 will be looking for flights from coast to coast (2017 holidays) and from philly to orlando (spring 2018). I was just planning on buying through the portal, but if there is a better way to do it, I'm like Mickey Mouse, all ears...

I transferred the 100k points to my Hyatt rewards account, and from there transferred to Southwest rapid rewards (50k UR --> 30k rapid rewards, twice) to get 60k RR points this month, also opened a personal Chase Southwest RR Plus card in December, completing the $2k spend this month to get the 50k RR bonus. 60k + 50k (plus the 2k for the actual spending plus 10k for adding authorized user) puts me over 110k rapid rewards points earned in 2017, so in a month or two I'll earn the Southwest companion pass, which will allow my designated companion to fly with me free for the rest of 2017 and all of 2018. This is one way to maximize the 100k UR bonus points from the CSR. I should point out though that Southwest actually revoked the ability to earn a companion pass from hotel transfer (and some other categories of transfers) on January 1, and then backtracked a week later. Now the new policy goes into effect April 1, so with the lag time, you would really have to get on it to complete the final transfer to Southwest by April 1. Also note, you can NOT just transfer the UR points directly into Rapid Rewards points (well you can, but those RR points have never counted towards the companion pass).

Another good thing about the ability to transfer out to airlines is that if you have a mileage account you don't use very often you can keep the balance active with even a token deposit each year.

True, although with dining rewards and other things that can be attached to these mileage accounts, it's easy (at least with Southwest and American) to get small amounts of points added periodically, preventing point loss.

You need to think a little bit bigger. If you're just using the Chase travel portal for the $1,500, you're not getting the max value. The thing that the Reserve fans understand is that you can transfer the points to certain airlines. I'm probably going to use them for first-class to New Zealand, which to me, is worth far more than $1,500 cash back.

What airline can you only spend 100k points on and get 1st class to New Zealand? I know this isn't possible with Skyteam out of MSP....

United. Note, the 80k is just one way. Also, I live on the East Coast, so options for me to NZ are super limited. I have enough points for RT by combining existing United points and other Chase credit cards.

You need to think a little bit bigger. If you're just using the Chase travel portal for the $1,500, you're not getting the max value. The thing that the Reserve fans understand is that you can transfer the points to certain airlines. I'm probably going to use them for first-class to New Zealand, which to me, is worth far more than $1,500 cash back.

I'd love to hear more about using the points with airlines to maximize the value. My family of 4 will be looking for flights from coast to coast (2017 holidays) and from philly to orlando (spring 2018). I was just planning on buying through the portal, but if there is a better way to do it, I'm like Mickey Mouse, all ears...

For Philly to Orlando, the tickets are probably under $250, so I would buy those out of pocket. Also, the coast to coast holidays, if the tickets are $250 or under, I'd also pay cash, $251 to $499, I'd consider using the Chase portal. $500 and up? That's when I'd be looking to use points domestically.

Another idea for you:You know what would be a cool trip for you and your family? Hawaii! I booked this last year for this upcoming April for 30k points a pop, for a total of 120k points, roundtrip. Depending on the city you go to (I'm going to Maui), you might be able to get a RT ticket for 25k points. How?

Transfer 100k pts to Flying Blue (you can fly Delta this way)

If you need more points, you can also transfer Starwood and Citi Thank You points to Flying Blue. Obviously, before moving points, you'd make sure the itinerary and points needed are confirmed. I had to call them, because the website was broken. I think the points transferred in a matter of minutes, and the agent held my reservation for a few days.

If you bought the tickets out of pocket, it would cost close to 4k for a family of 4.

If you have kids, though, you probably have more limitations with coordinating school vacations, etc.

I got 2 tickets to Bangkok for $96 ($48 each) and we booked only 2 weeks in advance (had some work stuff to square away). Booked through the UR portal and are flying with United, so we will get the United miles for flying as well. Not quite as good of deal as some people have gotten on here, but SW doesn't fly very much near us. Also, PP has many lounges in Tokyo (3 hour layover there) and Bangkok. Free alcohol and food always makes an airport more fun! 23 days travelling SE Asia should cost us about $700 total. The prices seemed on par with Google Flights, some were maybe $50 more.

I got 2 tickets to Bangkok for $96 ($48 each) and we booked only 2 weeks in advance (had some work stuff to square away). Booked through the UR portal and are flying with United, so we will get the United miles for flying as well. Not quite as good of deal as some people have gotten on here, but SW doesn't fly very much near us. Also, PP has many lounges in Tokyo (3 hour layover there) and Bangkok. Free alcohol and food always makes an airport more fun! 23 days travelling SE Asia should cost us about $700 total. The prices seemed on par with Google Flights, some were maybe $50 more.

Wait--how did you get two tickets to BKK for so cheap? Where are you flying from? And what's SW?

You need to think a little bit bigger. If you're just using the Chase travel portal for the $1,500, you're not getting the max value. The thing that the Reserve fans understand is that you can transfer the points to certain airlines. I'm probably going to use them for first-class to New Zealand, which to me, is worth far more than $1,500 cash back.

I'd love to hear more about using the points with airlines to maximize the value. My family of 4 will be looking for flights from coast to coast (2017 holidays) and from philly to orlando (spring 2018). I was just planning on buying through the portal, but if there is a better way to do it, I'm like Mickey Mouse, all ears...

For Philly to Orlando, the tickets are probably under $250, so I would buy those out of pocket. Also, the coast to coast holidays, if the tickets are $250 or under, I'd also pay cash, $251 to $499, I'd consider using the Chase portal. $500 and up? That's when I'd be looking to use points domestically.

Another idea for you:You know what would be a cool trip for you and your family? Hawaii! I booked this last year for this upcoming April for 30k points a pop, for a total of 120k points, roundtrip. Depending on the city you go to (I'm going to Maui), you might be able to get a RT ticket for 25k points. How?

Transfer 100k pts to Flying Blue (you can fly Delta this way)

If you need more points, you can also transfer Starwood and Citi Thank You points to Flying Blue. Obviously, before moving points, you'd make sure the itinerary and points needed are confirmed. I had to call them, because the website was broken. I think the points transferred in a matter of minutes, and the agent held my reservation for a few days.

If you bought the tickets out of pocket, it would cost close to 4k for a family of 4.

If you have kids, though, you probably have more limitations with coordinating school vacations, etc.

Thanks so much for this info!

I just was reading a blog post about using 100K points for 4 roundtrips to HI! (delta via korean air, I think?) We were actually planning HI for 2019. The kids are 5 & 8 now and I think it'll be a better trip when they are a little older. DH and I got married in HI in 2008 and spent a month there for our honeymoon. We've been wanting to go back, but every year, we say "when DD2 is DD1's age, we'll go!" And then a couple of years later, we think it'd be better if they were older. We want to do a lot of hiking and exploring off the beaten path kind of stuff. Stuff that I do not want to do with a 5 year old that insists her legs are to tired to walk anymore!

Coordinating with school will be the tricky part. I want to spend at least 2 weeks there, possibly visit more than one island. DD1 could miss a ton of school and it wouldn't matter that much (gifted 2nd grader, reading at a 7th grade level, enjoys school for the social aspect, somehow understands most concepts w/o much explaining...) DD2, the jury is out on the value of a day of school. She's certainly on par, but IDK how missing 2 weeks would impact her. DH says he has a hard time with 7 times tables because he was sick that week. I think he's just making excuses because 7s are one of the trickier ones. lol!

I got 2 tickets to Bangkok for $96 ($48 each) and we booked only 2 weeks in advance (had some work stuff to square away). Booked through the UR portal and are flying with United, so we will get the United miles for flying as well. Not quite as good of deal as some people have gotten on here, but SW doesn't fly very much near us. Also, PP has many lounges in Tokyo (3 hour layover there) and Bangkok. Free alcohol and food always makes an airport more fun! 23 days travelling SE Asia should cost us about $700 total. The prices seemed on par with Google Flights, some were maybe $50 more.

What an amazing deal!!! that is so cool. I'm very much looking forward to free food and drink when I use the PP! (I love food. I just committed to my first triathlon with a friend, and our team name is "Here for the food!")

Wait--how did you get two tickets to BKK for so cheap? Where are you flying from? And what's SW?

SW is Southwest Airlines, they do the companion pass deal that PathtoFIRE mentioned earlier in this thread. We are flying from Des Moines, IA and it cost 110,633 points, plus $300 travel credit to drop it to $96. ($2055.12 for 2 tickets - $(110,633*0.015)-$300=$95.62)

You need to think a little bit bigger. If you're just using the Chase travel portal for the $1,500, you're not getting the max value. The thing that the Reserve fans understand is that you can transfer the points to certain airlines. I'm probably going to use them for first-class to New Zealand, which to me, is worth far more than $1,500 cash back.

A quick search on United shows me a $2100 R/T flight from Atl to Tokyo that with points costs 70,000 points.

I'm sure I could easily find an example of another combination where the ticket price is higher than this.

I have 120,000 points so I could book a flight today to Tokyo for 70K points and still have enough (50k) to mostly cover another 60K point trip to Europe that would likely be what...$1300 cash or so?

If award seats are available the savings of booking with points can be very high IMO.

I know I'm reviving an old thread here, but I wanted to add that we are hoping to fly USA to Australia and stay for 3 weeks for our honeymoon in December. 135k-ish points should make 2 free round trip tickets! Combine that with our other CC hacking and we'll have nearly a week of free lodging too! :D

If you travel and don't CC travel hack, you're just dropping money out of your airplane window...

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

If I spend an hour mowing my lawn instead of working an hour of overtime, should I count that as costing (hourly rate)*(1.5) or as free?

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

If I spend an hour mowing my lawn instead of working an hour of overtime, should I count that as costing (hourly rate)*(1.5) or as free?

I this in a similar way.

It's more like: if you trade in a car worth $5000 that you inherited on a $15000 car did you pay $10,000 for the car? Or did you pay $15,000? You're exchanging an item with a known value for goods and I'd argue by passing up the option for cash (selling the car outright) you are spending that money.

The logic above is akin to finding $100 on the sidewalk and feeling like you can blow it at the casino because it's "free money"

But to your question, I'd say the difference between what it costs to have someone else to mow the lawn and your overtime wage is the cost. :)

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

For starters, the points are free to acquire because I am spending what I would normally spend, just in a specific way. By doing this, Chase deems it worth to pay me in an arbitrary currency that can be exchanged for a real currency. With the CSR it is important to note that points can be redeemed at $0.01/point, or $0.015/point for travel. So by travelling, I'm making those points 50% more valuable. Free points (didn't have to purchase them) results in free travel (50% more than cashing them out).

Opportunity cost for cashing out 135k points vs travelling with 135k points is $675. That is absolutely free money to me.

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

Agreed. If you're only traveling because you have the points, you're sacrificing real money to do so. The trip is not "free." It cost whatever cash value the points could have brought you. However I have found that the Ultimate Rewards store often has very reasonable prices for hotel rooms and car rentals that I would have bought anyway, so I find the travel redemption to be more worthwhile than cash redemption.

I took $1,000 cash because we don't travel much, used the travel rewards for business that was reimbursed one year and for housing husband at grad school the other (AirBNB), met the required spend with college tuition and paying property taxes, and profited $1,150 tax free. Downgrading this fall before the next annual fee hits.

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

Agreed. If you're only traveling because you have the points, you're sacrificing real money to do so. The trip is not "free." It cost whatever cash value the points could have brought you. However I have found that the Ultimate Rewards store often has very reasonable prices for hotel rooms and car rentals that I would have bought anyway, so I find the travel redemption to be more worthwhile than cash redemption.

Oh, don't get me wrong. There are advantages to the UR points and I'm banking mine as well (I just compare UR store to kayak before booking to make sure I'm getting my money worth). I just disagree when people claim they only paid $96 for a flight when they cashed in $1100 worth of UR points in addition to that $96. :)

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

Agreed. If you're only traveling because you have the points, you're sacrificing real money to do so. The trip is not "free." It cost whatever cash value the points could have brought you. However I have found that the Ultimate Rewards store often has very reasonable prices for hotel rooms and car rentals that I would have bought anyway, so I find the travel redemption to be more worthwhile than cash redemption.

Oh, don't get me wrong. There are advantages to the UR points and I'm banking mine as well (I just compare UR store to kayak before booking to make sure I'm getting my money worth). I just disagree when people claim they only paid $96 for a flight when they cashed in $1100 worth of UR points in addition to that $96. :)

Your argument is that it cost me $1100 of opportunity cost, where I am saying it literally cost me $96 dollars out of pocket to get those flights. The rest of the cost was paid by Chase with money that was given to me for free. Opportunity cost has value, but I wouldn't say it's dollar for dollar to out of pocket. Especially given the increased exchange rate for using it for travel, as I said before, it would be "costing" me hundreds of dollars to NOT use it for travel.

Interesting to see so many people claiming "free" travel using UR points that can easily be converted to cash. You should be including the value of those points ($0.01/point) in travel cost calculations IMO.

Agreed. If you're only traveling because you have the points, you're sacrificing real money to do so. The trip is not "free." It cost whatever cash value the points could have brought you. However I have found that the Ultimate Rewards store often has very reasonable prices for hotel rooms and car rentals that I would have bought anyway, so I find the travel redemption to be more worthwhile than cash redemption.

Oh, don't get me wrong. There are advantages to the UR points and I'm banking mine as well (I just compare UR store to kayak before booking to make sure I'm getting my money worth). I just disagree when people claim they only paid $96 for a flight when they cashed in $1100 worth of UR points in addition to that $96. :)

Your argument is that it cost me $1100 of opportunity cost, where I am saying it literally cost me $96 dollars out of pocket to get those flights. The rest of the cost was paid by Chase with money that was given to me for free. Opportunity cost has value, but I wouldn't say it's dollar for dollar to out of pocket. Especially given the increased exchange rate for using it for travel, as I said before, it would be "costing" me hundreds of dollars to NOT use it for travel.

The money was given to you for free, but that doesn't really matter. It could have been literal cash in your pocket if you so chose. It's quite probable that travel was the best thing to spend those points on, but you still spent more than $96 on it. You spent $96 plus points that could have just as easily been hundreds of dollars in cash.